Treatment of insects
AssigneeGea Food Solutions Bakel B.V.
InventorMartinus Johannes Wilhelmus Verhoeven
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method to treat insects in order to produce a human nutrition and/or an animal feed. The treatment involves at reducing and preferably stopping the autolysis of the insects, preferably using a cooling treatment step. The present invention further relates to a line to process insects.
Claims18
Method to treat insects to produce human food and/or an animal feed, the insects comprising a chitinous exoskeleton, wherein the method comprises:
- reducing a core temperature of the insects to or below −10° C. in an apparatus using a cooling medium until an autolysis of the insects is reduced or stopped, wherein the reducing step takes place between 0.5 seconds and 45 minutes,
- wherein after the reducing step, the method includes further treatment steps including mixing, grinding, and forming, where during the further treatment steps:
- i) a protein content of the insects is not reduced and ii) a color of the insects remains unchanged,
- wherein the insects are frozen after the reducing step, the method includes a separation step in which the insects are separated from the cooling medium and wherein the separation occurs at a higher atmospheric pressure than ambient pressure, and
- wherein the apparatus comprises a sensor and the method further comprises:
- determining the core temperature of the insects with the sensor and then based on the determined core temperature of the insects, the method comprises:
- generating a signal to control i) a contact time of the insects with the cooling medium and ii) a temperature of the cooling medium.
A method to treat insects to produce human food and/or an animal feed, the insects comprise a chitinous exoskeleton, the insects comprise a three-part body, comprising a head, thorax, and abdomen;
- compound eyes;
- and one pair of antennae, wherein the method comprises:
- reducing a core temperature of the insects to or below −10° C. in an apparatus using a cooling medium having a temperature between −195 and −20° C., the reducing step takes place between 1.5 and 10 minutes, the cooling medium comprises air, the insects are alive before the reducing step, the method includes establishing a turbulent flow of the cooling medium around the insects;
- grinding the insects in a grinder comprising a rotating knife and a holed plate, which cuts the insects into multiple parts;
- adding ingredients, spices, and/or water to the grinder and mixed with the insects;
- lifting and tumbling the insects with a flow of the cooling medium provided by one or more fans located below a surface on which the insects are provided, the surface is a mesh or grid,
- collecting the cooling medium after the cooling medium has contacted the insects, recycling the collected cooling medium, and then cooling the recycled cooling medium prior to reusing the recycled cooling medium;
- separating the insects from the cooling medium, wherein the separation occurs at a higher atmospheric pressure than ambient pressure;
- wherein during the grinding step, a mixing step, and during further processing steps including forming and coating/battering the insects, i) a protein content of the insects is not reduced and ii) a color of the insects remains unchanged;
- storing the insects and storing ingredients at a temperature below 18° C. before the further processing steps in the method;
- and
- wherein the apparatus comprises a sensor for use in a determining step, wherein in the determining step, a core temperature of the insects is determined, and based on the determined core temperature, a signal is generated to control i) a contact time of the cooling medium with the insects, ii) a temperature of the cooling medium, iii) a composition of the cooling medium, and iv) heat transfer conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.